Correlation between Blood Biochemical Metabolites Milk Yield, Dry Matter Intake and Energy Balance in Dairy Cows during Early and Mid Lactation

Radojica Djoković,Zoran Ilić,Vladimir Kurćubić,Miroslav Lalović,Jovan Bojkovski,Marko Cincović,Boban Jašović

doi:10.13189/adm.2017.050202

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to investigate nutritional and metabolic status in Simmental cows during early and mid-lactation. Fifteen early lactation cows and 15 mid lactation cows were chosen for the analysis. Blood samples were collected to measure beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), triglycerides (TG), glucose and the activity of aspartate transaminase (AST). Blood metabolites, milk yield, dry matter intake (DMI) and energy balance (EB) were recorded. Correlation analysis showed that DMI was significantly negatively correlated with NEFA, BHB and AST, and positively with glucose and TG. EB was significantly negatively correlated with NEFA, BHB and AST, and positively with glucose. Early lactation as compared to mid lactation cows were found to have significantly higher blood serum concentrations of NEFA, BHB and AST activities and lower blood serum concentrations of glucose and TG, but not significant. These metabolic changes were in correlation with DMI and EB, but not with milk yield. Suggest that they can serve as useful indicators of the nutritional and metabolic status of dairy cows during lactation.

Highlights

Production diseases i.e. diseases associated with improper nutrition or management are common in dairy cows
Dairy cows suffer from negative energy balance (NEB) during the first weeks of lactation due to energy expenditure associated with milk production and limited feed intake, resulting high mobilization of lipids from body fat reserves, and hypoglycaemia [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].Nutrition, age, heredity, body condition score (BCS), management and energy imbalance as various risk factors are possible causes of NEB, periparturient fatty liver and ketosis [5, 6, 7]
Subclinical ketosis may be diagnosed when serum BHB concentrations are above 1.2 mmol/l, while clinical ketosis is associated with BHB concentrations above 2.6 mmol/l [3, 19]

Summary

Introduction

Production diseases i.e. diseases associated with improper nutrition or management are common in dairy cows. Dairy cows suffer from negative energy balance (NEB) during the first weeks of lactation due to energy expenditure associated with milk production and limited feed intake, resulting high mobilization of lipids from body fat reserves, and hypoglycaemia [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].Nutrition, age, heredity, body condition score (BCS), management and energy imbalance as various risk factors are possible causes of NEB, periparturient fatty liver and ketosis [5, 6, 7]. Most of cows in this stage of lactation may suffer a subclinical form of ketosis defined as increased blood ketone bodies without any other symptoms but accompanied by considerable decrease in milk yield and susceptibility other diseases[8]. The main blood indicators of lipomobilization in ruminants are BHB, the most important and abundant ketone body, and NEFA [3, 10, 11].NEFA are preferentially and greatly accumulated as TG in the liver, primarily because of a decrease in the very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) synthesis by hepatocytes [12, 13].when steatosis occurs, endogenous liver synthesis decreases, leading to a reduction in blood glucose, total proteins, albumins and globulins, cholesterol, TG and urea. [1, 3, 4, 13, 14].Fatty liver infiltration and hepatocyte degeneration involve cell membrane damage and hepatocyte destruction coupled with the release of cytoplasm enzymes (AST, GGT, LDH) and marked increases in the circulating activities [7,15]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion